Top moments of 2025

One of the standout moments was our Westminster reception in early 2025, which brought together ministers, policymakers, industry leaders, and partners to highlight how CPI has helped secure high-value jobs, accelerate the growth of deep tech industries, and support industrial transformation in regions such as the North East and Scotland. 

2025 has been a pivotal year, marked by strategic investments and new national and international partnerships in areas such as RNA, batteries, and engineering biology, which will define the UK’s next industrial chapter. 

From new facilities and the UK RNA Biofoundry to global collaborations addressing climate change, food security, and vaccine equity, 2025 demonstrated what is possible when innovators, investors, and policymakers come together with a shared mission.

A year of milestones

10 years of biologics in Darlington

A decade ago, CPI’s National Biologics Manufacturing Centre in Darlington opened its doors to help the UK scale a new generation of biologic medicines. In November 2025, we celebrated 10 years of biologics innovation in Darlington, marking the journey from a small founding team to a thriving community of specialists supporting partners across the biologics value chain. 

Over that decade, the centre has solidified its position as a national asset, helping companies de-risk complex biologics processes, adopt more efficient manufacturing technologies, and build capabilities that keep high-value production and jobs in the UK. The anniversary was not just a celebratory look back, but a statement of intent about the next decade of growth in RNA and the advanced bioprocessing technologies that power viral vectors, proteins, and cell-based therapies. 

AMBIC: powering the UK’s net-zero ambitions

On the materials and energy side, 2025 saw CPI open its flagship Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC). Located in the North East of England, AMBIC provides a dedicated space for companies to develop, scale, and prove current and next-generation battery materials and manufacturing processes. 

With facilities focused on cell chemistry, electrode manufacture, and scale-up, and automation to rapidly optimise batteries from powder to cell, AMBIC is designed to help UK industry move faster, from early-stage concepts through to pilot-scale production. It is already working with partners across the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage supply chains to improve performance, resilience, and sustainability. 

A national hub for RNA manufacture

Another major milestone came with UK Government backing for the UK RNA Biofoundry based at CPI’s RNA Centre of Excellence in Darlington. The Biofoundry will serve as a national hub for RNA therapies, supporting the rapid development and scale-up of RNA therapies, and enhancing the UK’s pandemic preparedness. 

By bringing together design, development, analytics, and GMP-ready manufacturing under one roof, the Biofoundry is designed to help researchers and companies take RNA concepts from the lab to the clinic more quickly and with greater confidence. 

A big year for RNA

In 2025, RNA played an increasingly important role across CPI’s portfolio, with its impact extending from global vaccine equity to animal health and the development of first-of-a-kind models. 

The UK RNA Biofoundry set the tone, positioning Darlington as a national focal point for RNA innovation. With an integrated design – build – test – learn ecosystem, it will help innovators explore new RNA modalities, optimise lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations, and rapidly pivot to future health emergencies. 

To complement this, CPI signed an MoU to form a joint venture with Quotient Sciences. The CPI and Quotient Sciences partnership will combine CPI’s RNA and LNP manufacturing expertise with Quotient’s Translational Pharmaceutics® platform and clinical testing capabilities, creating a first-of-its-kind, integrated offering for RNA drug products. Together, the partnership aims to shorten timelines from early development to first-in-human studies, helping developers iterate more quickly based on real-time clinical data. 

RNA’s potential is not limited to human health. CPI also announced a new partnership to advance RNA vaccines for livestock with the Centre for Veterinary Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing (CVIM) at The Pirbright Institute. The collaboration focuses on RNA platforms for veterinary vaccines, supporting a One Health approach that recognises the close links between animal and human health. 

Perhaps the clearest illustration of RNA’s transformative promise came from our work on TheraPHIX™. In partnership with RNAssist, CPI helped develop a revolutionary RNA vaccines technology that enables ambient storage of RNA vaccines, dramatically reducing cold-chain requirements. 

By making it easier to transport vaccines to hard-to-reach communities, this innovation could bring us one step closer to genuine global vaccine equity, ensuring more people can benefit from life-saving RNA technologies regardless of where they live. 

Taken together, these projects demonstrate CPI’s role as a national hub for RNA innovation, linking early discovery, advanced manufacturing, skills, and real-world deployment to help keep the UK at the forefront of advanced therapies. 

Partnerships driving national and global impact

Partnership has always been at the heart of how CPI operates. In 2025, that spirit of collaboration translated into new consortia and alliances tackling decarbonisation, health, and food security at scale. 

National partnerships

On the energy transition front, CPI joined a UK consortium led by FluoRok to deliver a demonstrator plant for their novel battery electrolyte process. The project aims to establish the UK’s first domestic LiPF₆ production, helping to build a more resilient battery supply chain and support the growth of the UK’s EV industry. 

In health and life sciences, CPI and the University of Liverpool came together to launch the Microbiome and Infectious Disease Innovation Hub (MaID). The hub will support around 60 businesses over 3 years, giving them access to specialist facilities, experimental design, data analysis, and commercial and regulatory expertise as they translate microbiome research into real-world solutions. 

Later in the year, CPI joined forces with regional partners to form a new northern cluster aiming to shape the UK’s bio-industrial future. Bringing together York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority, Tees Valley Combined Authority, the University of York, and Teesside University, the cluster aims to create around 5,000 skilled jobs while cementing the region’s position as a global centre for engineering biology, sustainable chemistry, and advanced manufacturing. 

International reach

Our collaborations extended far beyond the UK’s borders. CPI joined a Canada – UK collaboration developing AI-powered bioreactors, bringing together leading organisations to transform biopharmaceutical manufacturing through digitally enabled, AI-driven process control. The project will help demonstrate how advanced automation and analytics can enhance the efficiency, consistency, and sustainability of biologics production.

CPI also formed part of an innovative UK – Brazil – Nigeria partnership to revolutionise cassava farming. Cassava is a dietary staple for over 100 million Nigerians, yet yields lag global averages. By combining expertise in agronomy, microbial biotechnology, and bioprocess scale-up, the partnership is developing microbial inoculant solutions that can boost yields, improve soil health, and strengthen the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

In India, we saw the launch of a landmark UK – India ​“Living Laboratory” in partnership with CSIR – National Chemical Laboratory. The Living Lab offers a real-world testbed for greener pharmaceutical manufacturing, enabling companies to trial continuous and solvent-free processes that reduce emissions and waste while enhancing productivity. It supports the decarbonisation of global pharma supply chains and helps companies meet increasingly ambitious Scope 3 targets.

These partnerships reflect a consistent theme: CPI is increasingly a connector between different regions, sectors, and disciplines, helping turn shared challenges into shared opportunities.

Engineering biology: the next industrial revolution

If there’s one concept that ties many of 2025’s highlights together, it is engineering biology. 

In November, CPI explored this theme in depth through a special episode of our People in Innovation podcast, ​‘Engineering biology: The next industrial revolution’. In the episode, Steve Bagshaw, Chair of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, joins CPI’s Clare Trippett and Professor Aline Miller from The University of Manchester to discuss what it will take for the UK to seize the engineering biology opportunity rather than watch it scale elsewhere. 

The companion explainer blog sets out how engineering biology is already reshaping medicines, materials, food, and fuels, and why it is central to the UK’s ambitions for a more productive, resilient, and sustainable economy. It also explores how the UK Government’s National Vision for Engineering Biology positions the field as a transformative capability across health, agriculture and food, chemicals and materials, and low-carbon fuels, with the potential to unlock trillions of dollars in global economic impact in the coming decades. 

Across our work in bio-based processes, sustainable chemicals, advanced medicines, and regional cluster development, engineering biology is moving from ​“future technology” to a practical toolkit. CPI’s role is to help turn that toolkit into investable projects, commercial products, and long-term jobs across the UK.

Innovation in practice

Behind each headline announcement sits years of detailed technical work with partners. In 2025, several new case studies captured how those collaborations are translating into real-world impact. 

With Rolls-Royce SMR, CPI helped to develop a factory acceptance testing (FAT) approach that may support the testing of modular configurations for next-generation nuclear energy. The project focused on de-risking the assembly of process modules in small modular reactors, using CPI’s depth of knowledge and experience to validate the proposed approach to testing the modules at the factory. By helping to optimise these configurations early, CPI supported Rolls-Royce SMR’s ambition to deliver cost-effective, low-carbon power that can strengthen energy security and support the UK’s net-zero goals. 

At the other end of the scale, CPI’s work with NeoBand showed how innovation can change individual lives. The NeoBand case study tells the story of a wearable, non-invasive, continuous temperature monitoring device designed for newborns who need emergency transport. Working through the ERDF SONNET programme, CPI helped NeoBand’s founders refine the device concept, select materials and components, and develop a scalable prototype ready for manufacture.

NeoBand has the potential to provide clinicians with real-time data during critical patient transfers, improving decision-making and helping to protect some of the most vulnerable patients. It is a powerful reminder that behind every process diagram or scale-up plan, there are human stories and outcomes that matter.

Together with projects such as TheraPHIX™, AMBIC, and the UK RNA Biofoundry, they highlight the depth of CPI’s expertise and capabilities, from world-class facilities and technical know-how to the teams who help partners navigate regulation, scale-up, and commercialisation.

2025 has been a year of transition, marking the celebration of our first 20 years and laying the foundations for the next two decades of impact. 

As we look ahead to 2026, we will continue to build on these milestones, deepen our partnerships, and expand the ways we support companies and regions to thrive in an ever-evolving world. 

If you’re working on an innovation in pharma, MedTech, sustainable materials, or bioprocess scale-up and design, and need support moving from idea to impact, let’s innovate together.